Online Test Results Reduce Patient Inquiries
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Despite opposition to the idea, providing patients with online access to test results reduces calls and emails to providers following testing
In 2011, CMS, CDC, and the HHS Office of Civil Rights jointly proposed a federal rule that would require laboratories to report test results directly to patients upon request, but, according to MedCity News, they were met with opposition. “There’s worry among some groups that leaving patients to interpret their lab results themselves would cause confusion and potentially even add to the physician workload because of aggressive follow-up actions by worried patients.”
Two senior leaders from Kaiser Permanente set out to “extend the existing research regarding patients’ reactions to viewing laboratory test results online” and published their findings on the Journal of Participatory Medicine.
According to the abstract, 1,546 Kaiser Permanente members responded to a survey with participants being patients who had viewed at least one test result online within the past year. The results indicated “high levels of satisfaction, appreciation, calm, happiness, and relief. Few experienced worry, confusion, fear, upset, or anger. The most common follow up activities to viewing lab test result online were speaking with family or friends about the results, looking up information on websites, and making a graph of the pattern of test results over time.
“Patients whose doctors spoke with them about what to expect from their test results experienced significantly more relief, appreciation, satisfaction, happiness, calm; and less confusion than those who did not speak with their doctors prior to viewing their results. Patients whose expectations were set by their doctors were also less likely to engage in a host of follow up activities, including emailing and telephoning doctors and scheduling additional appointments.”
The authors of the study concluded “patients who view their lab test results online overwhelmingly react with positive rather than negative emotions. The results also illustrate the influence of physician-patient prior communication on patients’ reactions and their follow up actions.”
MedCity News notes that the concerns that patients would overwhelm their doctors with questions and phone calls after seeing their test results were unfounded. Only 14 percent or the study’s participants said they emailed their doctor after viewing results online and even less, 2 percent, said they called their doctor.
MedCity News does write, “There are definitely a few flaws in the study — for example, the researchers distributed an email survey to a group of some of the most already engaged patients, and 86 percent of them reported being in good or very good health, meaning they were probably not getting seriously negative lab results. But the authors hope the data is reassuring to physician practices who are considering adding this feature to their patient portals, or who offer only limited or delayed access to lab results.”
The authors of the study conclude their report, writing, “Delaying access to lab test results has been shown anecdotally in the KP system to give rise to increased phone calls and complaints to medical offices, as patients worry most about the results they cannot see, assuming something must be wrong. (The fact that) patients largely react positively to seeing test results online should be reassuring to physician practices that are considering adding a patient portal with PHR to their practice websites. For practices that have already implemented online test result access but are still limiting access to a small number of results, our findings might provide a good basis for expanding access to results.”